The Hong Kong Court of First Instance has declined to prioritise an arbitration agreement where a debtor intended to dispute the existence of a debt without proving there was a bona fide dispute on substantial grounds. Dayang (HK) Marine Shipping Co., Ltd v. Asia Master Logistics Ltd [2020] HKCFI 311; HCCW 14/2019 Background The parties … Read more

The Hong Kong Court of First Instance dismissed an application to set aside an arbitral award, rejecting claims that the underlying agreement was a sham and that enforcement of the award would be contrary to the public policy of Hong Kong. The Court did not accept that the Defendant had signed the relevant agreement as … Read more

In Fimbank Plc v Discover Investment Corp [2020] EWHC 254 (Comm), available here, the English High Court discharged a freezing order obtained ex parte in support of arbitration on the basis that the claimant had no good arguable case on the merits. The Court heavily criticised the claimant’s failure to offer full and frank disclosure … Read more

In the recent case of Albion Energy Ltd v Energy Investments Global BRL [2020] EWHC 301 (Comm) (available here) the English High Court refused to stay court proceedings under section 9 of the Arbitration Act 1996 in a case involving competing jurisdiction and arbitration clauses. The case concerned a claim for summary judgment in the … Read more

In OCBC Wing Hang Bank Ltd v Kai Sen Shipping Co Ltd [2020] HKCFI 375, the Hong Kong Court of First Instance (Court) dismissed a summons for a stay of proceedings in favour of  arbitration due to the impermissibility of incorporating arbitration agreements from a charterparty. The Court declined to stay its proceedings despite the … Read more

A consultation draft of the highly anticipated ICCA-IBA Joint Task Force’s Roadmap to Data Protection in International Arbitration has now been released for public comment. The public consultation period runs until 31 March 2020. The Roadmap and its Annexes have been developed by the Task Force (of which Charlie Morgan of HSF is a member) … Read more

On 17 January 2020, by its ruling numbered (2019) Jing 04 Min Te 135 (Ruling), the Beijing Fourth Intermediate People’s Court (Beijing Court) upheld the validity of an arbitration agreement in a prospectus for a short-term financing bond which also contains conflicting litigation clauses. In the Ruling, the Beijing Court followed the opinion of the … Read more

Authors: Emma Schaafsma and Kemi Wood Introduction  In 2017, the Tanzanian government introduced a raft of legislative reforms to the natural resources sector. Through the reforms the new government looked to ensure that investor disputes were resolved locally and that the Tanzanian government would not be subjected to international arbitrations. The new government showed a particular hostility towards … Read more